The Way You Used To Be
by Rittie
Summary: When Ryoga notices that his beloved little sister was acting strangely, it somehow ended up being Kaito's problem. And much like with all of his 'problems', he deals with it and begins to question his true feelings for the infamous Shark's sibling. [implied Diamondshipping, post-canon/aged-up characters along with Kaito, Shark & Yuma friendship. T to be safe.]


**So while I wait to see everyone's reactions for "Our Little Brother", I decided to attempt Diamondshipping again. Tell me if its horrible, please, hardcore fans of this couple?**

 _The Way You Used To Be_

"She's been acting strange lately..."

Kaito looked up from the papers that he was supposed to read and sign for V to look at Ryoga, who was for whatever reason in his home and sitting on his couch, dwiddle his fingers nervously.

"Who?"

"Rio." Ryoga said. "My sister, in case you forgot."

"We are supposed to be friends, how could I forget?" Kaito replied. "Even if I did, Yuma would get on my case for it..."

"You bet I would!" talk about the wolf and he shall appear. More specifically, on the couch beside the shark duelist. "What's wrong with Shark's sis?"

"I don't know." said Shark sighed. "Everything was fine until Vector said that she began acting strangely ever since that late night when he found roaming the streets for no reason..."

"That is strange." the oldest of the bunch (appearence-wise, anyways) said as the youngest was lost deep in thought. "Will you two leave me alone to finish this for Chris if I promise to look into it tonight?"

"Yes." the duo replied, Yuma cheerfully and Ryoga thankfully, before leaving just as quickly as they came. The blonde chuckled slightly at the thought before turning back to his work. He had to be done before midnight, after all.

 **\- line break -**

Hours later, Kaito was flying with Orbital's help around Heartland, looking for anything out of place.

Ever since the Numbers War a year ago, things had been quiet and peaceful and he probably should have realized that it wouldn't stay that way for long. Not since Astral's message that they were waging war against a new, mysterious enemy they knew nothing about (aside from the fact that it was a crazed woman this time around), along with implications that they could deal with it and that Yuma and his group didn't need to help. That had happened a year ago and Yuma, despite claiming he wasn't worried about his friend and dueling partner, couldn't mask his suspicions that something might have gone wrong since that message was the last time he heard from the alien in over a year.

"I wonder..." he muttered.

"Yes, Master Kaito?" his robot replied but he just shook his head when he saw a flash of something near the park. "Orbital, land near the park. Make sure we cannot be seen."

"Understood!" Orbital stated and began to descend.

 **\- line break -**

A couple of minutes later, he was standing in the silent park. Nothing seemed out of place and it looked like whatever he saw was gone now but Kaito learned over the years to not trust things as they are.

"Come on out." he called out coldly. "Before I start looking for you."

He heard a rustle somewhere in the front and braced himself, frowning when he realized it was only Ryoga's sister, Rio. He relaxed a bit but then tensed again, seeing that her naturally pink eyes were too dark to be normal.

"Rio?"

The girl in question just smiled as she raised her hand, the number '95' flashing across her palm in a vivid purple color. So this was what had Ryoga worried. Just like he had been over a year ago, Rio was now possessed by a Numbers card, for whatever strange purpose, he didn't know. Yet.

"I guess there is no choice." Kaito said as his duel disk and duel mark appeared on his arm and eye, respectively. A strange duel disk appeared on Rio's arm as well as she sluggishly put on her D-Gazer. It made him wonder just how aware she was and what was the goal of this particular Number, which was supposed to be gone along with the other first 100 ones, with Astral to fight the war. And if the Number was here instead, that could only mean two things...

"DUEL!"

 **\- line break -**

A surprisingly hard and quite shocking duel later, Kaito was staring at the card that he got from beating Rio, who was now unconcious on one of the park's benches. His brows furrowed as he was lost in thought.

"Another Galaxy-Eyes... how peculiar..."

Sounds of stirring brought him out of his musings and looked behind himself into Rio's now, thankfully, light pink eyes. She was in control of herself again, just the way she used to be. Now, to inform Ryoga about it so that he could stop lounging on his couch instead of dealing with this himself...

"Kaito-san?" her voice was a bit weak, as though the Number had drained all of her energy. Very much so. It was possible, since it did look like quite the ... 'hungry'... monster. "... I ... I'm sorry about this. Ani must be worried too...!"

"It's alright." he smiled softly as he had taken upon doing for her, Ryoga and Yuma too along with Haruto. He wasn't sure why it felt different with her, though, she was just a little sister to him now, right? "Just don't let it happen again... if you can help it. It's good to have you back."

"It's good to be back." she replied with a smile of her own.

 **Was that too horrible? Please tell me :(**

 **So yes, if you can guess which woman Astral wrote about, you will get a cookie! Or a cake, depending on what you prefer... thank you for reading! :)**


End file.
